Two deaths were reported: a woman killed when a eucalyptus tree fell on her in San Diego, and a passenger in a car hit by a flying fiberglass pickup truck cover on a freeway in Riverside east of Los Angeles.

Hundreds of homes in Malibu were threatened Monday evening by a 1,200-acre wildfire in the Santa Monica Mountains. Wind whipped another blaze in brush near Norco, 45 miles east of Los Angeles. An estimated seven homes had been damaged by the fires.

Jane Adams walked with her daughter along the Pacific Coast Highway on Monday night to retrieve her car from her Malibu home. Adams said she and previous owners of the home rebuilt it after fires in 1942, 1956 and in the 1970s.

"Malibu people are stupid, they rebuild," said Adams, 60. "We stick it out."

The dry, warm Santa Ana wind started blowing Sunday night and gusted to 79 mph. It was expected to continue through midday Tuesday.

An estimated 250,000 Southern California Edison customers lost power during the two days after more than 150 utility poles were blown down, utility officials said. It wasn't immediately clear how many still didn't have power Monday evening.

More than 15,000 customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power remained without electricity Monday evening.

Power in the hardest hit areas may not be restored for several days, Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said.

In Los Angeles, a power line landed on a home and sparked a fire that destroyed the house and three cars, said fire Capt. Al Higginbotham.

In Santa Monica, the wind tossed Christmas trees around alleys, where they had been left for waste collectors.

"I had to weave around Christmas trees trying to get my car out of the alley," said resident Sara Shoemaker Lind.

The Santa Ana winds, which typically blow between September and February, are formed by dry air rushing from the western interior toward the coast, gaining speed and warmth as they descend from the high desert. They are known as Santa Anas below the mountains and passes of Southern California.